The Opposition “Statement” and the Situation in the Party

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1. What is the Opposition? The left, Leninist, proletarian wing of the party. The character of the Opposition is expressed in its Platform. The Opposition is a minority in the party. Its methods of work are determined by that. The Opposition is fighting for influence in the party, above all for influence upon the proletarian core of the party.

The Opposition’s main method of struggle is propaganda, that is, explaining its views, applying them to specific questions, and defending them.

2. If conditions were such that the party regime was normal, the party could assimilate the basic content of the Opposition’s views much more easily and quickly, and the Opposition would not be compelled to resort to ways of propagating its ideas that fall outside the party rules. The bureaucratic regime in the party, reflecting the pressure of the non-proletarian classes upon the proletarian vanguard, distorts all relations within the party and in particular the forms by which a minority can struggle to influence party opinion.

3. When the Opposition circulated its views through private meetings or through articles and speeches copied over on onionskin paper it was, in this confined, truncated, and allegedly “illegal” form, carrying out the elementary duty of all party members to participate in working out party decisions collectively.

In this period the apparatus people said, “Why don’t the Oppositionists speak out openly in the party cells?” But in order for people in the cells, which are far removed from one another, to really have gotten to know the views of the Opposition, those views would have had to be printed. That the apparatus refused to do, however. Hence the inevitably “factional” techniques of the Opposition. When the views of the Opposition had been disseminated so widely that they did appear in the cells, the apparatus began to expel people from the party for speaking out openly, seizing upon extraneous and incidental pretexts. Thus at this stage, too, the bureaucratic regime pushed people onto the road of factionalism.

4. The pre-congress period intensified and enlivened the ideological and political interests of the party, previously choked by the apparatus. The artificial isolation of the cells from one another and the impossibility of expressing one’s views within them forced large layers of the party onto the road of private meetings, where at first twenty or thirty people would gather, then fifty or a hundred and even as many as two hundred. In Leningrad and Moscow many thousands of working class party members passed through such meetings, including not only people who were wavering but also supporters of the majority line. AH of them knew that they ran a risk of repression by participating in these meetings. Not one of them would have gone to such meetings if the possibility of a normal exchange of views in the party had existed. Thus the so-called smychki (meetings not provided for by the rules) were also the product of the bureaucratic regime and of that alone.

5. The meeting in the Technical School grew out of the so-called smychki in response to pressure from the large number of party members who could not fit in the private apartments. It is obvious here too that the only thing involved was the propagation of the ideas of the Opposition. The “eye-catching” forms of this propaganda, plainly abnormal in and of themselves, were caused by the flagrant abnormalities of the party regime.

6. The Opposition’s participation in the November 7 demonstration with a number of placards was inspired by the need to counterpose the truth about the Opposition to the systematic lies and slanders with which both party members and non-party people are being poisoned. What did the Opposition placards say in essence? It is not true that we want to rob the peasantry, we are for cracking down on the kulak. It is not true that we are for bourgeois democracy; we are for carrying out the Testament of Lenin. On these placards the Opposition defended itself against low-minded slander in the simplest, most non-polemical, and genuinely party-spirited way, Le., it did everything to keep from intensifying the dispute. Of course, the very fact that we carried our own placards is abnormal. But this abnormality was imposed upon us by the immeasurably more serious, dangerous, and unhealthy abnormalities of party life and the party regime.

7. The apparatus organized fighting squads, which took physical reprisals against Oppositionists. That it was not a matter of any particular placards is shown by the example of Leningrad, where the Opposition did not carry placards but was subjected to the same violence as in Moscow.

8. The Central Committee announced on November 11 that any further meetings by party members in private apartments would be broken up by force. The very fact that the Central Committee had to resort to such measures, in which one section of the party assumes police duties in relation to another, testifies to the very deep-going deformations in the party regime. By this the apparatus has declared that it cannot tolerate any propagation of the views of the Opposition, even in the pre-congress discussion period- — whether at open party meetings (whistling, commotion, rattles, fist fighting, and beatings, not to mention tampering with the time limits for speakers) or at private gatherings.

9. The Central Committee resolution has created a new situation. To the Opposition the smychki (private meetings) were only a form of propaganda. The apparatus has decided to turn the smychki into a form of physical confrontation between two sections of the party. It is quite obvious that the Opposition never in any way desired to take that road, and could not take it.

All the efforts of the apparatus in the recent past have been aimed at imposing the form of physical confrontation upon any propagation of Opposition views. On this basis it erects the poisonous lie of alleged anti-Soviet work, mobilization of gutter elements against Soviet power, preparation for civil war, and so on. The purpose of these machinations is to frighten the party and prevent it from trying to understand the theses, articles, and speeches of the Opposition, i.e., the aim is to obstruct the effort by the minority in the party to propagate its views.

10. It was precisely this situation that determined the aim and content of the Opposition statement of November 14.

The Opposition stated that it was discontinuing the so-called smychki, not wishing to assist Stalin in his effort to organize clashes such as had already been accompanied by pistol shots in Kharkov.

The Opposition reminded the party over and over again that it, the Opposition, does not forget for one moment that it is only a minority in the party and that its basic task is the propagation of its views with the aim of winning over party opinion, or at least the proletarian core.

The attribution to the Opposition of any other aims — of a putschist, adventurist, or insurrectionist kind — is a lie, similar to the business with the Wrangel officer, and flagrantly contradicts the Marxist, Leninist, and Bolshevik character of the Opposition.

11. Closely connected with this is the question of party unity. The apparatus tries to impose the form of civil war, though embryonic, upon the Opposition’s effort to propagate its views. This inevitably implies the splitting of the party. The Opposition has nothing in common with such methods. Its road is the road of reform. It holds firmly to the perspective of rectifying the line of the party and of the workers’ state by methods of an internal character within the party and within the working class — and without revolutionary convulsions.

12. This basic Opposition standpoint is determined by its attitude toward the non-party workers. The attempt to attribute to the Opposition the intention of counterposing non-party people to the party or of basing itself on non-party people against the party is based on a lie — and a deliberate lie at that. The Opposition cannot, however, look on with passive indifference at the obvious estrangement the apparatus policies are causing between party and non-party workers, i.e., within the class. In this growing estrangement are hidden very great dangers for the dictatorship.

The Opposition calls for party differences to be resolved by normal party means and, at the same time, demands that non-party workers not be poisoned by lies about the Opposition. Our party leads the working class. The working class cannot passively follow the party without regard for the processes going on within the party. It wants to know about the differences and has a right to know about them. In past years non-party workers always knew about the existence of differences in the party from the printed discussions in which the various sides expressed their views. Now only one side speaks, and tells lies about the other. This has been going on for several years. More and more the working class perceives this as impermissible violence against itself by the apparatus of the ruling majority. Such a situation cannot last. Before anything else the party must know the truth in order to straighten out the line. The non-party workers should be given an accurate picture of the differences in order to help the party rectify its line.

13. As regards the Opposition statement of November 14, the ruling faction has two ready-made stories: (a) the declaration marks the capitulation of the Opposition; and (b) it is an attempt -to deceive the party. Both these assessments are well known from past experience. Both are equally false. Neither can prevent the declaration from attaining its goal, i.e., informing the party of the Opposition’s true intentions and methods of struggle.

14. Is it true that the Opposition capitulated? If by capitulation is meant the Opposition’s abandonment of the smychki under the threat of physical reprisals against Communists gathering at private apartments for discussion, it must be said that the Opposition definitely has retreated in the face of this threat of violence. The task of the Opposition is to propagate its views in the party and not to get into brawls with hand-picked fighting squads. If by capitulation is meant abandonment of its Platform and views, or of the propagation and defense of these views in the party, the Opposition can only reply with a shrug of contempt. Hie ideological correctness of the Opposition was never so obvious as now. Never has the political bankruptcy of the CC been so undeniably apparent as in the present pre-congress discussion period. There has never been a case in history in which organizational machinations and repression have been able to prevent the correct line from winning through to the consciousness of the proletarian vanguard.

15. Is it true that the Opposition wishes to deceive the party? The Opposition does not and cannot have any interest in deceiving the party, which is being fed deceptions all the time against the Opposition. The Opposition has no need to look better or worse than it is. The Opposition is a minority in the party. It wishes to fight for its Platform as a genuinely Bolshevik and Leninist platform, and it will fight for it. It is in the Opposition’s vital interest that the party understand and reject the apparatus lies about its alleged anti-Soviet, insurrectionist, etc., intentions. The Opposition had recourse to ways of fighting to propagate its views that went outside the rules because the CC trampled the rules underfoot and continues to do so, denying party members their elementary rights. The Opposition is prepared to do everything in order to bring the propagation of its views back into the normal channels of inner-party life. But for that it is necessary to reconstitute those normal channels. The Opposition is ready to render any and all assistance to that end. Despite all the flagrant abnormalities in calling and preparing for the Fifteenth Congress, the Opposition is ready to support every measure of the Fifteenth Congress genuinely aimed at restoring normal party life.

16. There is no need to say that repressive measures will not frighten the Opposition. Such measures are expressions of the rude and disloyal abuse of power of which Lenin accused Stalin (see Lenin’s Testament) and which now have become the standard method of the ruling Stalin faction. The Opposition is now more than ever confident of its correctness. For the AUCP and the Comintern there is no road other than the Opposition Platform. The knowledge that it is right gives the Opposition the strength not only to continue the struggle but also to practice self-discipline in the course of this struggle. Repression will not frighten the Opposition but neither will it drive the Opposition onto the road of two parties or other adventures, which the worst elements in the apparatus try to encourage the Opposition to do. More and more the party wishes to hear what the Opposition has to say and to understand it. The Opposition will do everything it can so that the party can learn its views and understand them. The line will be rectified and the unity of the party will be preserved.

17. The central aim of the Opposition statement was to inform the party, which is being deluded as to the true intentions of the Opposition, and thereby to help ease tensions and improve relations within the party. If we were to assume for the moment that the CC actually believes the charges of insurrectionism and other similar aims it attributes to the Opposition, the statement of the thirty Oppositionists would show them that this was not so. In that case it would be up to the CC to state that the Opposition — under threat of physical confrontation — had abandoned the so-called smychki; and it would be the CC’s duty to make the statement known to the party as soon as possible. But the CC did the opposite; it hid the statement from the party. At the same time stupid rumors are circulating in the apparatus about the alleged “capitulation” of the Opposition. The party is consciously and deliberately kept in a state of uncertainty and alarm: Did the Opposition capitulate? Or is it mobilizing to form a “second party,” for “civil war,” etc.? In fact there can be no question of a “second party” or of “civil war.” The Opposition will continue to fight for its views with all its energy, renouncing those forms of struggle that would make Stalin’s policy of forcing a split easier for him.

18. It is necessary for the CC to hide the Opposition statement — if only temporarily — in order to have a chance to wage as widespread a campaign of repression as possible before the congress. What else is left for the Stalin faction to do? The counter-theses of the Opposition expose the ideological poverty of the CC theses too glaringly and convincingly. The Platform of the Opposition also continues to have its effect. The maneuver over the seven-hour day, etc., was exposed too clearly as politically motivated. The entire world bourgeois press sees the campaign against the Opposition as its own campaign. Under these circumstances the most important, if not the only, weapon of the Stalin faction is repression. To justify the repression the poisonous lie about the insurrectionist aims of the Opposition is necessary. The statement by thirty Oppositionists shatters that lie. That is precisely why it is kept hidden from the party. But since it cannot be hidden for long, the repression is given a hasty, massive, and crudely arbitrary character. They don’t even look for formal pretexts now for expelling people: mere sympathy with the Opposition is enough.

19. “Will you comply with the decisions of the Fifteenth Congress?” we are asked by those who are organizing the Fifteenth Congress with flagrant violations of the party rules and accompanying the preparations for the congress with unremitting repression. In the crooked thinking of the Stalin faction the expulsion of many hundreds of the best party members, culminating in the expulsion of Comrades Zinoviev and Trotsky, is nothing but an attempt to force the Opposition into the position of advocating a second party. Isn’t there the danger that the artificially prepared Fifteenth Congress will approve this policy of the Stalin faction or at least reinforce it simply by failing to reverse it?

It is impossible to deny the existence of such a danger. Will the Opposition comply with a decision that means a further step in the direction of a split into two parties? No, the Opposition will not submit to such a decision. The Opposition will not allow itself to be tom away from the AUCP. And neither will it undertake to organize a second party. It will not let itself be pushed onto that road, even if such a push were to come from the artificially selected Fifteenth Congress. Whatever the decisions of this congress, the Opposition will regard itself as a component part of the AUCP and will act accordingly.

Through mass expulsions the Stalin faction could accomplish a split, if the Opposition were isolated within the party. But that is not at all the situation. Behind the Opposition there is already a semi-Opposition. Behind the semi-Opposition there are sympathizers, i.e., those who cannot bring themselves to vote for the Opposition but who express their disagreement with the party regime by not voting. There are many of these, and their number is growing. They are moving toward the Opposition. Repression against the Opposition will push this growing layer even closer. The expulsion of hundreds and even thousands of Oppositionists from the party will not break the ties these Oppositionists have with the party. The party will not let itself be split apart. The Opposition will not let itself be split away.